Cargill.com

Overview

In September 2024, Cargill’s Global Communications team engaged the DT&D Design Team to redesign the Cargill.com homepage in advance of a major brand refresh launching October 8. The goal was to quickly deliver a homepage that reflected the new visual identity, activated the Food Secure World campaign, and improved engagement—without disrupting existing site architecture.

As design lead, I oversaw the experience strategy, design execution, and cross-functional collaboration required to deliver a high-visibility public launch on a compressed timeline.

The Challenge

The engagement came with several constraints:

• Extremely tight timeline tied to a fixed brand launch date

• A need to reflect new typography, color, imagery, and iconography

• A homepage that could support campaign storytelling, not just navigation

• No appetite for large-scale information architecture changes

• Multiple stakeholder groups reviewing and socializing work in parallel

Success required speed without sacrificing quality or brand integrity.

Goals of the Redesign

1. Brand Alignment

• Align the homepage with Cargill’s refreshed brand guidelines

• Confidently introduce new typography, color usage, and imagery

• Showcase the brand in a modern, welcoming, and innovative way

2. Campaign Activation

• Launch the Food Secure World campaign prominently

• Use imagery and copy to clearly communicate Cargill’s purpose

• Create a flexible hero pattern capable of supporting future campaigns

My Role & Responsibilities

• Led the experience and visual design of the homepage

• Set direction for:

  • Content hierarchy

  • Visual emphasis

  • Responsive behavior

• Leveraged Sprout, Cargill’s enterprise design system, to accelerate delivery

• Facilitated live stakeholder reviews and rapid iteration

• Partnered closely with engineering to ensure build fidelity

• Championed user feedback as part of a compressed delivery cycle

Process

Rapid Design Using the Design System

Given the timeline, we moved quickly from light sketching to high-fidelity design. By relying on Sprout components, the team produced an initial homepage design within three days—a speed that would not have been possible without a mature design system.

Stakeholder Collaboration in Real Time

To maintain momentum:

• We presented early designs to internal stakeholders

• Used Figma Auto Layout to adjust hierarchy and layout live during reviews

• Enabled stakeholders to see cause-and-effect immediately, reducing feedback cycles

Parallel Iteration with Figma Branching

While stakeholders socialized designs internally, we used Figma Branching to:

• Maintain a stable review version

• Continue iterating in a working file

• Avoid losing momentum or overwriting approved decisions

This allowed design and feedback to progress in parallel.

Design–Development Partnership

We worked in close partnership with engineering:

• Held daily check-ins during development

• Used Figma Dev Mode to communicate specs and intent clearly

• Resolved visual and responsive nuances collaboratively

This tight loop ensured what shipped matched the design vision.

User Testing Under Time Pressure

After initial stakeholder and leadership feedback, we validated the design with users:

• Conducted unmoderated testing via Maze

• Focused on two primary audiences:

  • Professionals

  • Job seekers

• Collected rapid, actionable feedback without slowing delivery

Outcomes & Success Metrics

• Delivered the redesigned homepage ahead of the October 8 launch

• Successfully launched the Food Secure World campaign

• Post-launch performance showed:

  • Improved navigation performance despite unchanged IA

• User testing results:

  • Look and feel: 4.2 / 5

  • Engagement: 4.5 / 5

  • Top descriptors: Innovative, Friendly, Welcoming

Challenges & Design Tradeoffs

Designing with the Leaf

The refreshed brand introduced the leaf as a core visual element—iconic, but complex digitally.

Key challenges included:

• Content constraints when placing headlines and CTAs inside the leaf

• Finding imagery that:

  • Fit the shape

  • Scaled responsively

  • Represented Cargill’s inclusiveness

To address this, we:

• Collaborated closely with stakeholders to refine copy

• Curated ~30 image options from brand approved imagery to ensure flexibility

• Carefully tested compositions across breakpoints

Impact

• Demonstrated how a design system enables enterprise-speed execution

• Delivered a modern, brand-forward public homepage under real-world constraints

• Validated that meaningful UX improvements are possible without structural overhauls

• Reinforced trust between design, engineering, and communications teams

Why It Matters

This project illustrates how strong design leadership, paired with a mature design system, enables teams to move fast, collaboratively, and confidently—even on the most visible surfaces of a global brand.

It also validated a broader belief that guides my work today:

Design systems aren’t just about consistency—they’re about speed, trust, and impact.